Beating a Dead Horse but it needs to be: Preauthorization

[FarmAndBar]

We need to be able to preauthorize credit cards when running a tab. Period.  We really enjoyed the low buy in and easy menu development and a couple of the other features, but a bar/restaurant needs to be able to run a tab and preauthorize a credit card.  I've gone back and looked at conversations about it and it appears that this has been a CONSTANT request by users that has gone ignored.

I'd like to know why it isn't available.

[#2]

So sorry for the confusion here, @Amanda_Bierock @FarmAndBar and others!

Pre-Authorization recently became available to all users of Square for Restaurants (Free, Premium, and Plus), and you should be able to turn in on by following the instructions in this support article, via the Dashboard and device settings.

Enable and Configure Pre-Authorization Bar Tabs

If you are using Square for Restaurants and aren't able to enable Pre-Auth by following these steps, please reach out to our support team for assistance.

For businesses that use Square Point of Sale, there is not currently a way to access Pre-Authorization.  While we did run a Beta test last year for Pre-Authorization on Point of Sale, it has been discontinued and Square for Restaurants is the only application that currently supports this functionality.

The team developing Pre-Authorization decided last summer to focus their efforts on Pre-Auth within Square for Restaurants and discontinued the Beta and development of Pre-Auth for Point of Sale.

Some testers who participated in the Point of Sale Beta we ran last year may still have access via their open tickets settings on individual devices (like @ryanwanner) but accounts that were not enrolled in that Beta feature last summer can no longer be added.

@nika I hope this context is helpful when these questions come up - it can be confusing because at times we had a POS Beta on the way.  It's understandable when it's been a request for so long 🙂

Andy
Beta Specialist

[#3]

Hello all! We are so excited to let the community know that this feature is now available for Square for Restaurants! For more information on enabling and configuring preauthorization for bar tabs, check out this help article. Respond here if you have any questions, and thanks for your patience while our team built this out. We appreciate you!

️ Kristen
Square Community Manager
Product Engagement

[#4]

Pre-Authorization for Bar Tabs Update ⭐
Hi everyone - I'm Hadley, from the F&B product team. First of all, thank you SO MUCH for continuing to share all the feedback here over the years, we know how important the Bar Tabs feature is. For anyone who is not aware, this feature is currently in beta in the US for Square for Restaurants POS. 

➡️ You can join the beta community here and our beta team will enable feature to your account. You can find the support article for getting set up on RST POS here. 

As a reminder, when a feature is in beta, there is still some engineering work happening to iron out the smaller bugs and optimizing the experience for our sellers and their customers. If you choose to participate in the beta testing, please share any feedback (good or bad 😄) to our beta team at [email protected] so we can learn how it is working for you and your staff.  

Thank you!

[ryanwanner]

Hello @villalasuvas 

If you're talking about creating a negative dollar amount invoice that would return money to your client's cards, then no. Square does not allow for negative dollar amount transactions.

What you can do, however, is look up the invoice on the Transactions screen on your dashboard. Once the invoice is paid it will show on the date it was paid. You can then issue refunds directly from the invoice.

I assume your damage deposit is taken at the start of the lease term. If the term is quite long, you may not remember what date you created the invoice on to make the refund. You can look up each invoice by customer. If you go to the customer tab on the dashboard and search by their name, you can find all their invoices in the Activity section of the screen that pops up when you click on their name.

Hope this helps!

[villalasuvas]

Thank you! Actually, we are more of a hotel-type of business. We rent out beachfront vacation properties so the average guest stays about 1 week. Therefore, we are constantly returning deposits. Do you think this invoice service will work well in this case? 

Thanks, again, Ryan. 

-JP

[ryanwanner]

JP-

Yes I think the invoice option is your best bet.

Otherwise, the only option that I can see that would work for you to eliminate deposit returns would be to create a Deposit discount that you could apply to the completed invoice. This would require two invoices to each customer and your sales reports would be skewed because of the deposit double-reporting, but it would eliminate a ton of returns on your account which Square may question you on after a bit.

[SoloMoto]

I have an equipment rental business. 
I need to be able to take deposits for the equipment (but I don’t need to get money in my bank account). I just need to get a hold on the customers credit card, like when you rent a car. And when the customer returns the equipment undamaged, I need to be able to immediately release the hold on their card. Is this possible with Square?

[isabelle]

Hey @SoloMoto!

While Square POS directly doesn't have the ability to put a hold on a card for rentals, we do integrate with an app called Checkfront. This partnership supports partial and full payments, and may be a good solution for certain businesses like tour companies, accommodations, and equipment rental companies (like your own). 

Take a look at the Checkfront website to see if it can meet your needs. Let me know if you have any questions about this, and happy holidays! 

[ChesterGapWines]

Square - definitely need this request in 2020.  I get calls all the time about POS options and always decline because Square fits many other needs.  However, this has been a longstanding request from many users and we are getting the slient treatment from your development team.  I'm willing to depart with other Square "nice to haves" for this "must have" in the near future.

[Joe]

We appreciate the honesty, @ChesterGapWines. We always want you to feel empowered to do what is best for your business!

If there is any change that comes forth for this feature request in the future, we will be sure to update you here. 

[erichash]

I believe this is a feature that has been requested previously, so just seeing if there is an update. We use Square at our brewery taproom where we keep tabs open.  Is Square still considering a feature where we can swipe a card to open a tab and then be able to hand that card back to the customer immediately.  Then, when the customer closes their tab, we can use the card they originally gave us or a different payment.  However, if the customer does not close their tab, we can then close it with the card.  

I know that there is the Customer feature where we can have a card on file, but we get a variety of new customers and the processing fees are higher if a card is saved on a Customer profile.  Thanks for any updates you can give.  

[ashc]

Hi @erichash!

I moved your post to the existing thread for this feature request because it's being tracked here.

If we do have an update on this- we'll be sure to update this thread! 

Thanks for telling us more about your business and how it would be useful for it. That's super helpful for our Product Team to know when working on future improvements!

[P2P_Detailing]

So 3 years and counting now on the "Pre-Authorize" payment request. 

Any news on WHEN Square will get to it?